Here in western Kenya, now that farmers have planted their maize for the long rains season, many conversations focus on the weather. Has it rained yet this week? Will it rain tomorrow? Did you plant before the heavy rains of early March, or after? Is your maize germinating, or are you waiting for two days of rain to facilitate germination? Farmers worry, and think, and talk about rain because it is critical to the success of their harvest, yet completely out of their control.

One of the few ways of mitigating the risk of extreme weather events is crop insurance. Until recently, there were no crop insurance products on the market that would cover our farmers in Kenya. This year, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture has introduced a weather-indexed insurance product called kilimo salama (safe farming in Swahili). It covers losses due to extreme drought and excess rain. The Syngenta Foundation has placed thirty solar-powered weather stations in Kenya, and experts can determine whether a particular area should receive insurance payouts without having to visit individual farms to check conditions. These weather stations are often sited at local schools–which means that teachers can use them as a learning tool with their students.

One Acre Fund purchased crop insurance from the Syngenta Foundation this year, and we look forward to seeing the kilimo salama program grow alongside our organization. The “market bundle” we offer our farmers becomes even more effective when we are able to work with other innovative agriculture organizations like the Syngenta Foundation.

As the microinsurance market for farmers grows, it will face many challenges, as documented in a recent publication from the International Food Policy Research Institute that examines innovations in insuring the poor. For instance, index insurance for smallholder farmers will only work if there is sustained demand for it, which depends on farmers understanding the true value of insurance. If they overestimate the value, they will be disappointed; if they underestimate, they are unlikely to adopt it. “Without training for buyers in financial literary, it is unlikely that agricultural insurance products will solve the problem of agricultural risk,” Michael R. Carter of the University of California–Davis writes. We agree, which is why One Acre Fund is training its farmers to understand not just the importance of credit, but the importance of insurance as well.